Basically Camhs are saying they think that your daughter has a learning difficulty which maybe more general than dyslexia on its own. The WISC can pick up on discrepencies that can show whether this is the case or not.

I actually wanted IQ results but they are not in the report, all the scores are compared to the average score for a children of the same age. ds scored well above average on the first two and well below average for the second two.

Thats what's so confusing patty (sorry didn't want to use the first half of your name). We already have those details already in the very detailed report. It has percentiles, age related and what range she is in. We have the following:

It's funny you should mention that. My son has also recently been assessed by a private EP but they didn't do the WISC. The lea EP wasn't going to do further testing on him but I'd quite like them to do the WISC. Do you think it's worth me mentioning to them as his difficulties are still not so clear cut.

Ds's WISC profile was spiky and showed up issues that we didn't realise he had and he now gets consideration and adjustments made for in examinations as a result. So it was definitely worth it from that point of view alone.

It was also useful to get a handle on his strengths, as it helps us to work out how best to support him and if possible play to his strengths.

THanks again. The profile our private EP has of him is already really spikey so I should imagine the WISC would show difficulties clearer then. The only thing is I'm disappointed with our EP as he gave no recommendations - it merely stated results based on the BAS (3rd edition) scores.

Our EP gave us the scores, plus an explanation of what each subtest represents and what ds's results meant. She also made recommendations on what could be done to support and/or compensate for problem areas.

I think I'd be pretty cheesed off if I'd paid for a private EP and they didn't come up with any recommendations. Is there any chance you could contact them and see if they'll do it?

The WISC is an IQ test, the BAS is a bit different. It assesses GCA which is NOT exactly the same as IQ. It's a bit complicated but basically:

The WISC gives an IQ called the full scale score (but only if there is less than 23 points between your highest and lowest scores in any cluster, Patty, which might be why your DS didn't get an IQ. You shouldn't quote an overall IQ if there is a big spread of scores). The IQ includes measures of raw reasoning power - the verbals and non verbal (which they call 'performance') clusters - and the supporting underpinning skills which are essential for a child t be able to effectively make use of their reasoning power. The IQ is not just an average of all the scores, it is weighted so as to take account of the impact the different scores might have on a child's ability to make academic progress. For example working memory is very important as an underpinning skill so there is a bit of weighting in the IQ depending on if the working memory score is lower.

The BAS looks at general cognitive ability. This is rather like the reasoning bit of the WISC, except it breaks 'performance' into 'spatial' and 'non verbal' which is a bit more precise. In making the GCA, if I remember correctly (it's a while since I used the BAS) it doesn't include the working memory scores (the recall of digits, for example) - these are assessed separately in a section called 'diagnostic scales'.

So in a WISC IQ score it's a prediction of the child's likely ability to make progress taking into account their reasoning skills and the supporting skills that a child needs to make good use of those reasoning skills in the classroom. The BAS GCA is just a measure of how good a child's reasoning skills are, and doesn't take those underpinning skills into account; they are considered and reported separately.

Advantages of BAS: British test, British norms, separates non-verbal and spatial reasoning.Advantages of WISC: includes underpinning skills as well as reasoning ability in giving measure of child's 'potential'.

BTW, sweetteamum some of the assessments are similar but not exactly the same (eg both tests ask children to use blocks to make patterns but the blocks are different in design and the patterns are obviously different) so it is permitted to do both assessments close together. You cannot repeat either assessment within 6 months.

Medics tend to prefer WISC. I do the WISC nearly all the time because I do so much work with CAMHS.

Ah, now that's interesting ilikemysleep. It explains why, post WISC, the LEA were happy to accept that despite being academically able and having good 'levels' ds was not reaching anyway near his potential and adequate progress wasn't being made. Which was good, because the school was doing it's level best to cover up a complete lack of progress throughout years 3 and 4.

The WISC results made it clear that he should have been doing better, but that certain aspects of his profile were presenting barriers to him accessing the curriculum.

Ds really enjoyed doing his WISC assessment and asked if he could do another one next week!

I recently got back in touch with him to ask how the scores would affect ds at school etc etc and he just said something which I knew before I paid him, over £600!

Thanks ilike, that makes perfect sense now. Thanks for explaining in detail. I'm thinking I should of checked more details now before paying out such a lot of money.

I will look forward to dds WISC assessment results. Just out of curiosity how long will a WISC take and how long would be a reasonable length of time to await the results. Sorry to be a pain. The WISC is the last bit of assessment for hopeful diagnosis.

It took a few weeks for the results to come back, as the EP said his results were unusual and she wanted to consult with a couple of other people with more extensive experience of analysing WISC results before producing the report.

His results were also complicated by the school orchestra practising in the hall next door to the room they were assessing him in, so he kept zoning out. (sensory issues) Oh and the school double booking the room and moving him to another class, away from the room he always saw the EP in, halfway through the assessment.

sweetteamum a WISC takes about 45 mins to 1.5 hours depending on how clever the child is and how slow their processing speed is ;) That's the basic IQ part. There are additional bits which would make it longer.

moose - No...though it seems like a GAI would be closer to the GCA measured by the BAS. If there is a big discrepancy I just report on the separate clusters individually. I don't think GAI would mean anything much to people here.